Google Ads CLI

Google Ads CLI Skill

You have access to google-ads-cli, a read-only CLI for the Google Ads API (v23). Use it to query ad accounts, pull performance stats, and run custom GAQL queries.

Quick start

# Check if the CLI is available
google-ads-cli --help

# List accessible accounts
google-ads-cli customers

If the CLI is not installed, install it:

npm install -g google-ads-cli

Authentication

The CLI uses OAuth2 user credentials (Google Ads API does not support service accounts). Credentials are stored in ~/.config/google-ads-cli/credentials.json.

Before running any command, verify credentials are configured by running google-ads-cli customers. If it fails with a credentials error, ask the user to set up authentication:

google-ads-cli auth login \
  --developer-token=xxx \
  --client-id=xxx \
  --client-secret=xxx

How to get the values:

1. developer_token: Sign in to a Google Ads manager account and open the API Center. Copy the developer token.
2. client_id & client_secret: Go to Google Cloud Console > Credentials, create an OAuth client ID (Desktop app type). Make sure the Google Ads API is enabled.

This opens a browser for authorization. Make sure the user signs in with a Google account that has access to the Google Ads data they want to use. After approval, credentials are saved automatically. All subsequent commands work with auto-refreshing tokens.

For MCC (manager) accounts, add "login_customer_id": "1234567890" to the credentials file.

Alternative: set GOOGLE_ADS_ACCESS_TOKEN and GOOGLE_ADS_DEVELOPER_TOKEN environment variables (useful for CI/CD).

Entity hierarchy

Manager Account (MCC)
 └── Customer Account (10-digit ID, e.g. 1234567890)
      ├── Campaign
      │    └── Ad Group
      │         ├── Ad (Ad Group Ad)
      │         └── Keyword (Ad Group Criterion)
      ├── Campaign Budget
      ├── Conversion Action
      ├── User List (remarketing)
      └── Asset (images, videos, sitelinks)

Customer IDs are 10-digit numbers. Dashes are stripped automatically.

Monetary values

Google Ads uses micros: 1 currency unit = 1,000,000 micros. All cost/bid/budget values returned by the CLI are in micros. Always divide by 1,000,000 when presenting monetary values to the user.

Output format

All commands output pretty-printed JSON by default. Use --format compact for single-line JSON (useful for piping).

Built-in commands

Account discovery

# List all accessible accounts
google-ads-cli customers

# Get details for a specific account
google-ads-cli customer 1234567890

# List sub-accounts under an MCC
google-ads-cli account-hierarchy 1234567890

Browsing entities

# Campaigns (filter by status: ENABLED, PAUSED, REMOVED)
google-ads-cli campaigns 1234567890
google-ads-cli campaigns 1234567890 --status ENABLED

# Get a specific campaign
google-ads-cli campaign 1234567890 98765

# Campaign budgets
google-ads-cli campaign-budgets 1234567890

# Ad groups (filter by campaign, status)
google-ads-cli ad-groups 1234567890 --campaign 98765

# Get a specific ad group
google-ads-cli ad-group 1234567890 11111

# Ads (filter by campaign, ad group, status)
google-ads-cli ads 1234567890 --campaign 98765 --ad-group 11111

# Get a specific ad (requires ad-group-id and ad-id)
google-ads-cli ad 1234567890 11111 22222

# Keywords
google-ads-cli keywords 1234567890 --campaign 98765 --status ENABLED

All listing commands support --limit <n> (default 100).

Performance stats

Stats commands require --start and --end dates (YYYY-MM-DD):

# Campaign stats
google-ads-cli campaign-stats 1234567890 --start 2026-01-01 --end 2026-01-31

# Campaign stats with device segment
google-ads-cli campaign-stats 1234567890 --start 2026-01-01 --end 2026-01-31 --segments device

# Ad group stats (filter by --campaign and/or --ad-group)
google-ads-cli ad-group-stats 1234567890 --start 2026-01-01 --end 2026-01-31 --campaign 98765

# Ad-level stats (filter by --campaign and/or --ad-group)
google-ads-cli ad-stats 1234567890 --start 2026-01-01 --end 2026-01-31

# Keyword stats (sorted by impressions desc; filter by --campaign and/or --ad-group)
google-ads-cli keyword-stats 1234567890 --start 2026-01-01 --end 2026-01-31

Available segments for campaign-stats --segments: device, ad_network_type, day_of_week (comma-separated).

Stats commands default to --limit 1000.

Other commands

# Audiences and remarketing lists
google-ads-cli audiences 1234567890
google-ads-cli user-lists 1234567890

# Assets and extensions
google-ads-cli assets 1234567890 --type SITELINK
google-ads-cli extensions 1234567890 --campaign 98765

# Conversions and billing
google-ads-cli conversion-actions 1234567890
google-ads-cli billing 1234567890

# Change history
google-ads-cli change-status 1234567890 --limit 20

# Negative keyword lists
google-ads-cli negative-keywords 1234567890

Asset types: IMAGE, MEDIA_BUNDLE, TEXT, YOUTUBE_VIDEO, LEAD_FORM, CALL, CALLOUT, SITELINK, STRUCTURED_SNIPPET.

Custom GAQL queries

The query command is the escape hatch for anything not covered by built-in commands. It runs arbitrary GAQL (Google Ads Query Language) against the Google Ads API.

google-ads-cli query <customer-id> "<GAQL>"

GAQL syntax

SELECT field1, field2, ...
FROM resource_name
WHERE conditions
ORDER BY field [ASC|DESC]
LIMIT count
PARAMETERS key=value

• SELECT and FROM are required. WHERE, ORDER BY, LIMIT, PARAMETERS are optional.
• Keywords (SELECT, FROM, WHERE, etc.) are case-insensitive.
• Field names, resource names, and enum values are case-sensitive.
• No OR operator -- all WHERE conditions are AND-ed together.
• No JOIN, GROUP BY, HAVING, or subqueries.

WHERE operators

Date filtering

Custom range:

WHERE segments.date BETWEEN '2026-01-01' AND '2026-01-31'

Predefined ranges (with DURING):

• TODAY, YESTERDAY
• LAST_7_DAYS, LAST_14_DAYS, LAST_30_DAYS (NOT including today)
• THIS_MONTH, LAST_MONTH
• THIS_WEEK_SUN_TODAY, THIS_WEEK_MON_TODAY
• LAST_WEEK_SUN_SAT, LAST_WEEK_MON_SUN
• LAST_BUSINESS_WEEK

Common resource names (FROM clause)

Entities: customer, campaign, campaign_budget, ad_group, ad_group_ad, ad_group_criterion, campaign_criterion

View resources (for metrics): keyword_view, search_term_view, geographic_view, gender_view, age_range_view, landing_page_view, ad_group_audience_view, shopping_performance_view, click_view

Other: change_status, change_event, conversion_action, asset, bidding_strategy, label, recommendation, shared_set, shared_criterion

Common metrics

Performance: metrics.impressions, metrics.clicks, metrics.cost_micros, metrics.ctr, metrics.average_cpc, metrics.average_cpm, metrics.interactions

Conversions: metrics.conversions, metrics.conversions_value, metrics.all_conversions, metrics.cost_per_conversion, metrics.conversion_rate, metrics.value_per_conversion

Impression share: metrics.search_impression_share, metrics.search_budget_lost_impression_share, metrics.search_rank_lost_impression_share, metrics.absolute_top_impression_percentage, metrics.top_impression_percentage

Video: metrics.video_views, metrics.video_view_rate, metrics.average_cpv

Common segments

Date: segments.date, segments.week, segments.month, segments.quarter, segments.year, segments.hour_of_day, segments.day_of_week

Device/network: segments.device, segments.ad_network_type, segments.slot, segments.click_type

Conversion: segments.conversion_action, segments.conversion_action_name, segments.conversion_action_category

Important GAQL rules

1. Date range required with date segments. If segments.date (or segments.week, segments.month, etc.) is in SELECT, a finite date range filter MUST be in WHERE.

2. Non-date segments in WHERE must be in SELECT. Exception: date segments can appear in WHERE without being in SELECT.

3. Removed entities are included by default. The API does NOT filter out removed entities. Add campaign.status != 'REMOVED' (or equivalent) to match Google Ads UI behavior.

4. Field compatibility. Not all fields can be selected together. If you get an error about incompatible fields, remove fields one at a time or consult the Google Ads API field compatibility documentation.

5. ORDER BY fields must be in SELECT. You can only order by fields that appear in the SELECT clause.

6. Attributed resources. You can select parent entity fields without them being in FROM. For example, campaign.name is available when FROM ad_group.

GAQL query examples

Search terms that triggered ads:

google-ads-cli query 1234567890 "SELECT search_term_view.search_term, search_term_view.status, campaign.name, ad_group.name, metrics.clicks, metrics.impressions, metrics.ctr, metrics.cost_micros FROM search_term_view WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS ORDER BY metrics.impressions DESC LIMIT 50"

Campaign performance by device:

google-ads-cli query 1234567890 "SELECT campaign.name, segments.device, metrics.impressions, metrics.clicks, metrics.ctr, metrics.cost_micros, metrics.conversions FROM campaign WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS AND campaign.status != 'REMOVED'"

Impression share analysis:

google-ads-cli query 1234567890 "SELECT campaign.name, metrics.search_impression_share, metrics.search_budget_lost_impression_share, metrics.search_rank_lost_impression_share, metrics.clicks, metrics.impressions, metrics.cost_micros FROM campaign WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_7_DAYS AND campaign.status = 'ENABLED' ORDER BY metrics.search_budget_lost_impression_share DESC"

Landing page performance:

google-ads-cli query 1234567890 "SELECT landing_page_view.unexpanded_final_url, metrics.clicks, metrics.impressions, metrics.ctr, metrics.cost_micros, metrics.conversions FROM landing_page_view WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS ORDER BY metrics.clicks DESC LIMIT 20"

Demographics -- age breakdown:

google-ads-cli query 1234567890 "SELECT ad_group_criterion.age_range.type, campaign.name, metrics.clicks, metrics.impressions, metrics.ctr, metrics.cost_micros FROM age_range_view WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS"

Geographic performance (by user location):

google-ads-cli query 1234567890 "SELECT geographic_view.country_criterion_id, geographic_view.location_type, campaign.name, metrics.clicks, metrics.impressions, metrics.cost_micros FROM geographic_view WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS ORDER BY metrics.clicks DESC LIMIT 50"

Ad copy performance (responsive search ads):

google-ads-cli query 1234567890 "SELECT ad_group_ad.ad.responsive_search_ad.headlines, ad_group_ad.ad.responsive_search_ad.descriptions, ad_group_ad.ad.final_urls, ad_group_ad.status, metrics.clicks, metrics.impressions, metrics.ctr, metrics.cost_micros FROM ad_group_ad WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS AND ad_group_ad.status != 'REMOVED' AND ad_group_ad.ad.type = 'RESPONSIVE_SEARCH_AD' ORDER BY metrics.clicks DESC LIMIT 20"

Conversion actions audit:

google-ads-cli query 1234567890 "SELECT conversion_action.name, conversion_action.type, conversion_action.status, conversion_action.category, conversion_action.counting_type, conversion_action.click_through_lookback_window_days, conversion_action.view_through_lookback_window_days FROM conversion_action WHERE conversion_action.status = 'ENABLED'"

Shopping product performance:

google-ads-cli query 1234567890 "SELECT segments.product_item_id, segments.product_title, metrics.clicks, metrics.impressions, metrics.ctr, metrics.cost_micros, metrics.conversions, metrics.conversions_value FROM shopping_performance_view WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS ORDER BY metrics.conversions_value DESC LIMIT 50"

Account-level daily trend:

google-ads-cli query 1234567890 "SELECT segments.date, metrics.clicks, metrics.impressions, metrics.ctr, metrics.cost_micros, metrics.conversions, metrics.conversions_value FROM customer WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS ORDER BY segments.date"

Workflow guidance

When the user asks for a quick overview

1. Run google-ads-cli customers to find accessible accounts
2. Use campaign-stats with a recent date range for a performance snapshot
3. Present the data with costs converted from micros to currency

When the user asks for deep analysis

1. Start with campaign-stats to identify the scope
2. Drill down with ad-group-stats or keyword-stats for underperforming campaigns
3. Use custom GAQL queries for specific analysis (search terms, demographics, impression share, landing pages)
4. Cross-reference with conversion-actions to verify tracking setup

When the user asks about specific metrics not in built-in commands

Use the query command with GAQL. Common scenarios:

• Search terms report -- use search_term_view
• Geographic data -- use geographic_view
• Demographics -- use gender_view, age_range_view
• Landing pages -- use landing_page_view
• Impression share -- select metrics.search_impression_share and related fields from campaign
• Shopping products -- use shopping_performance_view
• Change history -- use change_event for detailed logs

Error handling

• Authentication errors -- ask the user to verify their access token and developer token
• "field is not compatible" -- some fields cannot be selected together; remove incompatible fields and retry
• Empty results -- check date range, status filters, and whether the account has data for the requested entities
• "MISALIGNED_DATE_FOR_FILTER" -- when filtering segments.month or segments.quarter, the date must be the first day of the period

API documentation references

• google-ads-cli documentation
• Google Ads API overview
• GAQL reference
• GAQL grammar
• Resource field reference (v23)
• GAQL query cookbook
• Segmentation rules